Ian Grant was eligible for accelerated day parole because he has served one-sixth of his first federal sentence for what are considered non-violent crimes

Ian Grant was eligible for accelerated day parole because he has served one-sixth of his first federal sentence for what are considered non-violent crimes. But the National Parole Board quickly rejected his bid earlier this month, according to documents obtained by the Winnipeg Free Press.“The board is satisfied there are reasonable grounds to believe that, if released, you are likely to commit an offence involving violence before the expiration of your sentence,” the board wrote.Police arrested Grant and 12 other biker associates in February 2006 based on the work of career criminal Franco Atanasovic, who was paid $525,000 to infiltrate the Hells.Grant wasn’t even an original target when police began their investigation in early 2005, but he quickly came on the radar when he began extorting an old drug debt from Atanasovic. Police ended up giving their agent thousands of dollars to pay to Grant to buy him more time. Grant eventually sold two kilograms of cocaine and one kilo of crystal meth to Atanasovic, although he was never actually caught in the act. He used lower-level couriers to do his bidding, but jurors clearly accepted the agent’s word they were acting on Grant’s directions. More than $6,000 in marked police money used in the drug buys was found inside Grant’s safety deposit box, along with nearly $60,000 in other cash from drug proceeds.Grant insisted his crimes were not connected to his involvement with the Hells Angels. Grant was ordered at his sentencing hearing to pay a $118,000 fine, which is the amount he pocketed from three major drug deals he was caught doing. However, he recently chose to have an extra two years added to his overall sentence.The 17-year total penalty is one of the stiffest ever given for drug crimes in this province.

Martin Robert, who police say has been linked to Hells Angels activity

Martin Robert, who police say has been linked to Hells Angels activity. Police have issued an arrest warrant for Robert on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, gangsterism and drug trafficking and conspiracy. Robert, 35, has been implicated in the killings of members of the rival Rock Machine and Bandidos biker gangs from 1994 to 2002 - the height of the biker war. He also has reputed ties to drug trafficking over the past 12 years, say police. Robert is believed to like vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

Hells Angels support club known as the Jesters has opened a new clubhouse in the 10600-block of Scott Road in Surrey

Hells Angels support club known as the Jesters has opened a new clubhouse in the 10600-block of Scott Road in Surrey, and another group with links to the Angels -- the Shadow motorcycle club -- took over a Whalley clubhouse off King George Highway earlier this year that had been run briefly by the Outcasts puppet club. Police have seen other biker clubs started in recent months in Ashcroft, Fort St. John, Campbell River and 100 Mile House, most of whom have made appearances at events with the Hells Angels.

"This is also a phenomenon we are seeing across Canada," Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, of the RCMP's Outlaw Motorcycle Gang unit, said Wednesday. "There are more of these support puppet clubs springing up right everywhere, even in the Maritimes."Police say puppet clubs are being used as a survival tool by the Hells Angels after a series of recent convictions of high-profile members and the growth of violent rival mid-level drug gangs such as the United Nations and Red Scorpions. The puppet gangs -- so-called because the Hells Angels are thought to pull their strings -- create a much larger network that HA members can use criminally, while insulating themselves from law enforcement. Just this summer, as the Haney chapter of the Hells Angels celebrated its anniversary, police saw bikers wearing a three-piece patch for the fledgling "Devil's Army" motorcycle club. Shinkaruk said the Devil's Army is headed by long-time Hells Angel associate Ricky Alexander, 54.The patch shows the puppet club as operating out of Campbell River, although Alexander is a Lower Mainland resident who owns an acreage in Mission and condos in Burnaby and Pitt Meadows. "They came out of the Haney (Hells Angels) clubhouse sporting those colours. That certainly indicates they have the approval," Shinkaruk said. "It is certainly my belief that they are going to be subservient to Haney and at their beck and call." He said the Haney chapter has "had internal strife and difficulty with the Red Scorpions," two reasons why they might want to expand their circle of friends.The new Devil's Army head visited the RCMP in Campbell River to tell them the group was not criminal, Shinkaruk said. Alexander was convicted in April of 2001 of possession of a prohibited firearm and ammunition after being stopped in Vancouver with what police believed was a hit list in the glove box of his rental car and a loaded pink handgun in his waistband. The first name on the hand-written list was "John Suspect" who Vancouver police said was a person of interest in the murder a month earlier of full-patch Angel Donald Roming. Also on the list were three of John Suspect's associates, including a man later gunned down at a Vancouver gas station.
Rick Ciarniello, spokesman for the Hells Angels, denied Wednesday that his club has any puppet or support groups. "We don't have any of those," he said. "I have nothing to say about any of that. It has nothing to do with us." Asked about the Devils' Army being present at the Haney party this summer, Ciarniello said: "Everybody who comes to our event doesn't necessarily have anything to do with us."

Hells Angel Ronaldo Lising had a substantial criminal record for assault and trafficking cocaine and crystal methamphetamine

The accused Ronaldo Lising, Randy Potts, John Virgil Punko and Jean Joseph Violette laughed and congratulated their lawyers after the verdict.Hells Angel Ronaldo Lising had a substantial criminal record for assault and trafficking cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, and was on bail when he was arrested on the two firearms offences now before the court.“Mr. Lising is a sophisticated criminal,” the prosecutor told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly.“He leads a criminal lifestyle,” Levitz added, reading out a wiretap statement in which Lising confided he was taking a risk, especially since he has children, but also had to weigh the rewards of his activities.The Crown asked the judge to impose a 30-month sentence, consecutive to the nine years and three months Lising is already serving.Four Hells Angels laughed and shook hands with their lawyers Monday after a jury acquitted them of committing crimes in association with, or for the benefit of, a criminal organization.While the jury returned nine guilty verdicts on a 28-charge indictment against the four members of the Hells Angels' East End chapter, the rejection of the criminal organization charge was a blow to the Crown.Had it succeeded, it would have been the first such conviction in B.C. against the Hells Angels, which has always maintained it is just a motorcycle club.
It was the second failed test case of the anti-gang law against the Hells Angels in B.C. arising from the same $10-million police investigation."It's unfortunate the jury wasn't able to conclude what judges in other parts of Canada found -- that the Hells Angels is a criminal organization," prosecutor Mark Levitz said outside court after the verdict.The jury did find the accused guilty of some extortion and weapons offences "and we're pleased to that extent," he said.The verdict, which followed three days of jury deliberations and a nine-month trial, was also a disappointment to police, who promised to pay $1 million to key witness Michael Plante, who worked as a police agent and infiltrated the East End chapter of the Hells Angels.

"We're grateful to live in a democracy and have a jury system," defence lawyer Bonnie Craig, one of three lawyers representing Potts,

said after the verdict.
Potts, Punko and Lising will remain in custody until sentencing July 22. Violette will remain on bail until he is sentenced Oct. 28 by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly.Potts was convicted of four offences: Having control of illegal grenades, possessing a loaded Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol, possessing an Intratec 9-mm semi-automatic pistol, a Ruger .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle and Voere bolt-action rifle and a .44 Ruger revolver.Lising was convicted of possessing two loaded prohibited firearms: A Rossi .357 Magnum revolver and a Walther PPK/S .380-calibre semi-automatic pistol.Violette was found guilty of the extortion of Glen Louie, a drug dealer who was beaten for using the Hells Angels name without permission. He was also convicted of the illegal possession of a loaded Beretta 20 semi-automatic pistol and a Ruger SP 101 revolver.Punko was convicted of counselling Plante to commit mischief by wilfully damaging property, and the unauthorized possession of a loaded Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol.The two-year, $10-million police investigation that led to the just-concluded trial has also resulted in other criminal proceedings. The final one, a drug trial involving two Hells Angels members, begins Sept. 9.Last year, David Francis Giles, 58, a senior member of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels, was acquitted of cocaine trafficking in Kelowna but two co-accused were convicted.The Hells Angels now operate a clubhouse in the Okanagan city.

Raids in Quebec targeted Hells Angel gangs drug trade and members last Wednesday, the Ontario government seized the Niagara chapter's clubhouse.

Raids in Quebec targeted Hells Angel gangs drug trade and members last Wednesday, the Ontario government seized the Niagara chapter's clubhouse. "This is just another blow to them," said OPP Det.-Sgt. Len Isnor, head of Ontario's multi-police force Biker Enforcement Unit. On May 26, the 14-year anti-biker investigator joined a B.C. colleague before a parliamentary committee which was debating whether to name the Hells Angels an organized crime group in the Criminal Code. "If they schedule them as a criminal organization, we won't have to go through the five-month process (to prove the motorcycle gang is a criminal group), tying up the courts," Isnor told the Sun, comparing the current lengthy court process to concluding "water is wet."
At present, each time a Hells Angel is convicted, police and prosecutors must prove -- under a 1997 law -- that he operated for the gang's benefit, plus the gang's ranking as an organized crime organization. Once found guilty, however, the law requires longer, consecutive prison sentences. But Isnor predicted if Parliament approves the change, it will face a constitutional challenge, "since it involves a person, not a substance like cocaine." Revving up charges against organized crime has been a big factor in keeping Hells' membership almost stagnant, he said. Criminalizing the gang will be the first big change to federal organized crime laws in 12 years. Seizing the Welland clubhouse June 1 -- the fourth taken over under Civil Remedies for Illicit Activities (CIRA) legislation -- was the latest blow in the province.

The Hells have about 170 "full-patch" Ontario members plus countless associates in biker and non-biker gangs eight years after gaining their first foothold, Isnor said. "Most of them are in the Toronto area," with four chapters here -- in Oshawa, Woodbridge, Keswick and Simcoe County.

Other CIRA seizures since 2006 included Oshawa, Thunder Bay and London clubhouses.
A court ruled last year the Oshawa property on Ortono Ave. could be sold, Isnor said. It remains on the market. Police arrested 30 members in the Oshawa raid.
In April 2007, police seized the Hells' downtown Toronto chapter clubhouse on Eastern Ave. as an offence-related property, $500,000 cash, nine kilos of cocaine, over 80 weapons and 500 litres of the date-rape drug GHB. Isnor said the building's status "is still before the courts" until it is ruled as an asset of crime, and several chapter members pleaded guilty to crimes; others still face trials.
Criminologist Stephen Schneider, author of the recent book Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada and a Saint Mary's University professor in Halifax, said police have done a better job targeting bikers in recent years. Focusing on undermining chapters, investigators "learned their lesson." In his book, experts say police and the justice system "dropped the ball" 20 to 30 years ago by letting bikers -- especially the U.S.-founded Hells -- spread their dark wings.
There are numerous motorcycle gangs, but

the Hells "are the biggest in the world," with about 3,000 members in 248 chapters based in 30 countries, plus a network of associates. Isnor said.

More than one-quarter of Canada's 450 Hells are in Ontario, Schneider said.
For decades, the gang nibbled at the province's lucrative drug, prostitution, loan-sharking and auto-theft underworld, succeeding only after recruiting arch-rivals. Boasting about 100 Hells, the "highest concentration of Hells Angels in the world," Schneider said Toronto "was always the jewel in the crown for every biker gang."
With police recruiting informers and officers keeping a close eye on chapters, some spurned the Hells, but Isnor said the gang moves members to bolster ranks reduced by arrests -- as they did in Niagara. Eroded by members being jailed, that chapter became leaderless this March when founder and clubhouse part-owner Gerald "Skinny" Ward, 61, was sentenced to the equivalent of nine years and his lieutenant, Ken Wagner, 43, was sentenced Oct. 7 to the equivalent of 11 years. They orchestrated delivery of four kilos of high-grade cocaine in 2005 and 2006 to Oshawa member Steve Gault, who became a police informant. More important, they got stiffer terms after Justice John McMahon agreed the Hells fit the description of a criminal organization. Five-to eight-year terms were also meted out to 15 other Hells, including three Niagara members. In court, Gault warned the Hells controlled Niagara's drug trade and "they'll kill ... pointblank" anyone trying to cut in.
Officials said Wagner's sentence was the first in Canada for directing others in activities to benefit a biker organization. When Steven "Tiger" Lindsay and Ray Bonner of the Woodbridge chapter were convicted of extortion, their sentencing in 2005 recognized for the first time that a Hells committed a crime as part of a gangster group, Schneider wrote. The law required the judge to order consecutive sentences instead of normal concurrent terms, ensuring longer jail time. Lindsay got six years instead of four, Bonner got three instead of two. Within six months, police targeting major drug trafficking raided Hells and associate clubhouses in B.C., arrested three in Manitoba, plus 27 in Northern Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. Five were Thunder Bay members, including Cambridge restaurateur Andre Watteel, an ex-Satan's Choice member who later led the Hells in Kitchener. After paying a fine and being granted jail time already served, Watteel recently moved to Niagara to help keep its required six-member chapter status secure, Isnor said.

"The Hells Angels are unprecedented in the annals of Canadian organized crime in that they are the first truly national criminal organization, with cells and/or associates in every province and territory," Schneider writes. "Canada has become somewhat of an international stronghold for the motorcyle club."

The cops are increasingly watching, ready to move when their intelligence networks yield sufficient evidence to unseat a chapter, he said. In the first of two days of raids in Quebec last Wednesday, which resulted in 46 arrests of mostly Hells and associates, more than 600 officers seized a suspected gang-linked cocaine and tobacco fortress on the Kahnawake reserve that served the streets of Montreal. Police seized cocaine, pot, Ecstasy, tobacco, cash, plus a dozen guns. Suspects included an Ontario-based Hells living in Montreal, plus Salvatore Cazetta, 55, co-founder of the Rock Machine gang -- who joined the rival Hells after the Quebec war. Cazetta was associated with Maurice "Mom" Boucher, 66, later the Hells' brutal boss in Quebec, who masterminded the bloody gang war after Cazetta was jailed in 1994.
Rounded up in a Hells sweep of 150 gang members in April, Cazetta was awaiting a bail hearing on drug trafficking charges when arrested in jail last Wednesday and accused of ties with several associates in the Kahnawake warehouse. On the lam for importing 11 tonnes of cocaine until arrested in Fort Erie in 1994, he was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced in 1999 to 12 years after pleading guilty to drug trafficking. Montreal police Insp. Bernard Lamothe told a news conference the Hells set up "business links" with two arrested Kahnawake residents and ran a drug network "in several places throughout Quebec."

Suspected of being in Australia is senior Canadian Hells Angel bikie David Macdonald Carrol, 57, wanted for questioning over the deaths of 13 people

Suspected of being in Australia is senior Canadian Hells Angel bikie David Macdonald Carrol, 57, wanted for questioning over the deaths of 13 people as well as for attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and gang and drugs offences, between 1995 and 2001.Carrol remains on the run despite a major police operation conducted by Canadian authorities in 2001 that resulted in the arrest and incarceration of members of the Hells Angels and members of an affiliated group, called the Rockers.

Robert Shannon who distributed cocaine and marijuana for the Hells Angels in British Columbia was sentenced in Seattle to 20 years

Drug smuggler who distributed cocaine and marijuana for the Hells Angels in British Columbia was sentenced in Seattle to 20 years in a federal prison on Friday, and prosecutors say they will oppose any effort by Robert Shannon to serve his prison time in his native Canada.U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sullivan said cross-border criminals such as Shannon "should not be able to further exploit their citizenship to avoid paying for their crimes."Shannon had close ties to the Hells Angels in British Columbia and, according to prosecutors, used violence and intimidation routinely.
Prosecutors wanted Shannon to serve 33 years. His defense lawyers asked for 13.The government alleged in sentencing documents that Shannon, a Langley, B.C., trucker who's boasted that he made millions from the drug trade, once paid to have a co-conspirator killed and threatened an Abbotsford, B.C., co-defendant who testified against him Friday.Dozens of others have been charged in the case, which has resulted in 39 prosecutions and the seizure of more than 1,700 pounds of cocaine, 7,000 pounds of "B.C. Bud" marijuana and $3.5 million in cash, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.